Overrunning preventer for winding machines



H. E. BRYANT OVERRUNNING PREVENTER FOR WINDING MACHINES May 4, 1926.

Filed Sep 16, 1925 Ill Patented May 4, 1926.

UNITED sr'rss PATENT creme HENRY E. BRYANT, OF PROVlDENCE, RHODE ISLAND,ASSIGNOR T TUBULAR WOVEN FABRIC COMPANY, OF PAWT'UCKET, RHODE ISLAND, ACORPORATION OF RHODE ISLAND.

OVERRUNNING PREVENTER FOR \VINDING MACHINES.

To all whom it may concern I Be it known that I, HENRY E. BRYANT, a

citizen of the United States, residing at' Providence, in the county ofProvidence and State of Rhode Island, have invented new and usefulImprovements in Overrunning Preventers for \Vinding Machines, of whichthe following is a specification.

The present invention relates to machines for winding filamentous orstrip material by the action or a rotating winding head carrying asupply of such material on an independently rotatable spool or the like.Its object is to prevent continued rotation of the spool after thewinding head has beer. abruptly stopped or quickly retarded. Forinstance, assuming that the winding head is normally rotated at highspeed, and that the machine is equippedv with a brake or other stopmotion device for quickly arresting the motion" of the head when someuntoward accident occurs, such as breaking of the stock being wound orits failure to be fed properly to the winding p0int,'then it isdesirable to stop the rotation of the stock holding spool or reel alsoas soon as possible in order to prevent unwinding and snarling of thestock supply, or other danger liable to result from continued freerotation of the supply spool.

I have accomplishedthis object by providing in connection with thewinding head and supply spool, in a machine of the character aboveindicated, an automatic stop or clutch device which is inope 'ative solong as the winding head continues to operate in its normal manner, andbecomes operative instantly to arrest the spool when the winding head isitself arrested. The embodiment of the invention herein illustrated hasbeen designed for use with a machine for winding strip material intotubular form, and particularly for making fi8X1bl8 metallic conduit orarmor for electrical conductors; such a machine being disclosed in mypending application filed February 17, 1925, Serial No. 9,782. Thedrawings provided with this specification illustrate so much of the saidmachine as is sufiicient for explanation of the principles of theinvention and the construction of the specific embodiment hereinreferred to. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is notlimited to use with that specific machine, but is ap plicable also toother machines which in clude a rotating winding head, an indcpeinlentlyrotatable spool or equivalent stock holder, and means for stopping thewinding head. V I

1n the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation, with parts broken away and shown insection, of the machine above referred to having one embodiment of myoverrunning prevention means applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view on an enlarged scale of that partofthe machine which contains said overrunning pre-' vcntion means;

3 is a sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2 and viewed in thedirection or the arrows applied to saidline;

Fig. 4- is a perspective detail of the clutch which embodies the form ofoverrunning prevention means shown in the preceding figures; I

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a fragment of the winding head and'thestock holding spool, and including a modified form or clutch forpreventing overrunning of the spool.

Like

same figures.

The part ofthe machine which I have called the winding head is thatdesignated by he numeral 21 in the drawings. "It is secured on one endof a shaft 22 which roreference characters designate the tates inbearings 28 and 2% 011a base orr"ra1ne Such head may be driven by anysuitable means, such as a motor 26 mounted on the frame and having ashaft which is coupled with theshaft 22 by a belt or chain -27 sprocketwheels.

The winding head is cylindrical in form, having an end wall 29 and anouter side wall 30. It also has an interior cylindrical bearingfsurface81, the said outer walland earing being coaxial with the shaft 22. Inthe annular space between the bearing 31 and the wall is a spool holdingthe stock 32 and having a hub 33 surrounding and rotatable upon thebearing surface 31, and a flange or base. 34' bearing against end wall29 or against roller bearings mounted in said and conipleniental pulleysor parts wherever they occur in all the end wall. The stock is drawnfrom the spool and carried around a guide roll 35, mounted on the head,and led thence to the winding point. The head is also equipped withstoclt feeding, forming and laying devices, for a full disclosure ofwhich reference may be had to the aforesaid application; but as suchdisclosure is not essential to an explanation of the present invention,it is not repeated herein. The requirements of the present disclosureare met by the explanation that the winding head is rotatable and thatthe stoclcholding spool is carried by the head and is independentlyrotatable relatively thereto about the same axis.

The stool: shown illustratively herein is a metallic strip or ribbonwound in the term of a coil and mounted on the spool, surrounding thehub 33 thereof and bearing against the face or flange Such showing,however, is illustrative and typical rather than exclusive. The termspool which I have used herein is a generic term intended to include anydevice similar or equivalent to the so-called spool herein illustratedand adapted to hold a supply of stock in coil form.

lVhen the winding head is rotated to .t'orm the stock into the articleof. manufacture which is the final product or the machine,

tionary parts of the machine and other objects, but at a differentspeed, the speed ditferential being due to the delivery of stock fromthe spool to supply the demands of the manufactured article or goods.spool rotates relatively to the winding head, and the direction of suchrelative rotation may be the same as, or opposite to, the direction inwhich the stock is wound to form the coil carried by the spool. Therotation of the head is much more rapid than the relative rotation ofthe spool, hence when the head is suddenly stopped the spool tends tocontinue on in the direction of its absolute rotation whether therelative rotation is in the same, or the opposite direction. Suchcontinued rotation or over-running of the spool is liable to have moreor less objectionable and serious results, well understood by thoseacquainted with the art. The object and accomplishment of the inventionis to prevent such overrunning.

The direction of rotation of the winding head when winding the stock inthe term of a right-hand helix is that indicated by the arrow A inFigure l and the arrow B in Figure 3. The coil of strip material isapplied to the spool in such manner that as it is drawn oh? to satisfythe demands of the manufactured goods for the stock, it causes therelative rotation of the spool to take place in the direction indicatedby the ar Thus the row G in Figure 1 and the arrow D in Figure 3. Thedirection of such relative rotation is opposite to the direction ofrotation of the head. Nevertheless the speed of winding is so muchgreater than the speed of such relative rotation that the absoluterotation of the spool, by which I mean its rotation relatively to thestationary parts oi the machine and to other objects, is in the samedirection as that of the head. lit follows, then, that whenthe head issuddenly arrested so that its rate of rotation is greatly reduced, itnot instantly stopped, the direction of relative rotation ot the spoolis reversethdue to the slowing down of the head while the spoolcontinues to rotate with substantially undiminished velocity due to itsmomentum. I make use of this 'reversal of relative rotation to e'liectclutching oi the spool and head together when the head is arrested orstopped. I have shown herein two terms of mechanism for this purpose,which are alike in principle but specifically different in that one is areversal of the other.

One form of such device is illustrated in Figures 1 to L and comprises apawl, or preferably a plurality of pawls 86 set into recesses 37 in thecentral part of the winding head, and in any convenient location betweenthe forward and rear ends of such central part, but preferably near therear end thereof. These pawls are mounted on pivot pins 38. They haveprovision for a limited amount of swinging motion between the boundingwalls of the recesses 37, and such bounding walls are so arranged thatwhen the pawl lies against one of such walls its extremity is close tothe bearing surface of the head, and does not project far enough fromsuch bearing surface to impede movement of the spool in its normaldirection of relative rotation; but when the pawl swings toward oragainst the opposite wall of the recess, its extremity projects "fromthe bearing surface far enough to engage abutments with which the spoolis provided.

In the interior surface of the spool, and in that Zone of such surfacewhich surrounds the pawls, are recesses or notches 39, the sides ofwhich constitute the abutments above mentioned. Springs 40 are engagedwith the pawls and with adjacent portions of the head, tendingconstantly to throw the pawls outwardly. lVhen the relative rota tion ofthe spool takes place in the normal direction, the notches, orequivalent abutments, pass successively over the pawls, and although thepawls may spring temporarily into such notches, they do not interferewith the movement of the spool because they are inclined in the samedirection as the travel of the spool and the abutments simply push themaside and pass over them. But when the direction of relative motion isreversed,

. and any pawl enters in one of the notches 39, it interlocks. with theside-of the-"notch to the angular spacing between thenotches in thespools plus or minus a fractional part of such angular spacing. 'Thus,for instance, in the arrangement shown where there are three pawls, theangle. between each two of them is one and one-third times the anglebetween two adjacent notches. Thus the greatest lost motion whichcantake place before the head and spool become clutched togetherisone-third of the spacing between the notches. By this means. a quickcoupling. of the spool is insured with out requiring the notches to beexcessively close together.

In the alternative or reversed mechanism shown in Figure 5, theequivalent pawls' 41 are pivoted to the winding head by means of pins 42set into the end wall of the wind ing head and projecting forward nearthe circumferential wall thereof. These pawls overlap the rim of thespool and snap over abutments 4L3 projecting from the forward face ofsuch rim, when the spool turns in the normal direction of relativerotation, indicated by the arrow E. The pawls have tail pieces 44 whichare normally held by springs 4'5 against the other wall of the head, andprevent backward yielding of the pawls when the direction of relativerotation is reversed. Here also the pawls 'are spaced apart by anangular distance equal to that between the abutments 43 plus or minus afraction of such angle.

It will be understood that in either form of the invention a single pawlwill obtain the effect of clutching the spool in the circumstancesindicated, but with the possibility of delay in so doing. It is also tobe understood that if assurance of a quicker clutching efiect at anytime is desired, more than two or three pawls may be provided and spacedaccording to the principles here'- in explained.

The clutching means herein disclosed is independent of the means forarresting the" winding head, andwill operate to prevent overrunning ofthe spool whenever the head is checked, whatever means are applied forthe purpose" whether automatic or manual.

In Figure 1 there is indicated at 46 a de-' vice for arresting the head,which device may be the same as that shown for the purpose in my priorapplication Serial No.

9,782, or a different device, and which typi fies generally a means forthat purpose. But since the'sp'ool clutching means of this invention isindependent of the head stopping means, no description of any suchstopping means is required'for, thisdisclo 'j sure. I V

In addition to the clutch means herein described, the machine may be equpped with frictional traction means, such for instance as that shown inmy'prior application Serial No. 9,782, for causing rotation of the spoolwith the head when the machine is started up and for maintaining.

sufiicient tension in the stock while the machine continues in normalopera-tion.

The means herein disclosed for preventing overrunning of the stockholding spool is one of several specifically different devices which Ihave devised for the same purpose. Two other forms of such means aredisclosed in applications for patent filed concurrently herewith. Thisdevice is distinguished from one of those disclosed in said concurrentapplication by the fact that it is controlled and actuated primarily inconsequence of a substantially slackening in the speed of the windinghead, and not under the direct control of the stock or ofjthe means bywhich the head is arrested; while it is distinguished from the deviceshown in the other of said application, by being of a positivecharacter, the last-named device be ing a friction clutch.

Having thus described the principles and certain specific embodiments ofthe invention, although without attempting to .deseribe all possibleforms of the invention or all of its modes of use, I declare that what Iclaim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: i

1. In a winding machine having a rotatable head, a spool mounted on saidhead and independently rotatable relatively thereto, and a clutchbetween the head'and spool adapted to couple the one to the other uponreversal of the direction ofrelative rotation'between them. i

, 2. In a winding machine a rotatable winding head, a supply spoolmounted upon said head and rotatable thereon about the same axis, and aone-way clutch between the head and spool arranged to permit relativerota tion between them in one direction and to prevent such rotation inthe opposite direction. i 3 r 3. A winding machine comprising arotatable winding head, a supply spool mounted on said head, in axialrelation thereto and rotatable relatively thereto about the same axis,the spool being caused to rotate relatively to the head in the oppositedirection tothe rotation of the head in the normal operation of themachine, and a clutch be: tween the head and spool constructed to permitsuch relativev rotation and, to prevent relative rotation in theopposite direction.

4t. In a winding machine a winding head, a supply spool for the materialbeing wound mounted on said head coaxially therewith land rotatablerelatively thereto about the same axis, the machine and the saidmaterial being arranged to effect such relative rotation, during thenormal running of the machine, in the opposite direction to the rotationof the head, and clutching means operable by a reversal in the directionof such relative rotation for preventing such re versed rotation.

5. In a machine of the character described a rotatable winding head, asupply spool carried by said head coaxially therewith and with provisionfor rotation relatively thereto, aclutch member mounted upon one of theelements constituted by said head and spool and being under theactuation of force tending constantly to engage the pawl with the otherof said members, the latter mem er having abutments cooperative with thepawl, and the pawl being free to move in one direction far enough topermit passage by 01" said abutments, and being so restrained as toprevent passage of the abutments in the oppositedirection. V

6. in a winding machine of the character described, two coaxial membersboth rotatably mounted and having provision for relative rotationbetween them, one of said members being a winding head and the otherbeing a supply spool carried by said head, a positive clutch devicemounted on one of said members, abutments on the other membercomplemental to said clutch device, the clutch device being yieldinglymounted and displaceable by said abutments when said relative rotationoccurs in one direction, and means for preventing displacement of theclutch device by the abutments when relative rotation occurs in theopposite direction.

In testimony whereol I have ailixe'd my signature.

HENRY E. BRYANT.

